The fabrication of common elements such as reinforced concrete, prestressed architectural members and various building materials utilize reinforcing bars, commonly referred to as "rebars." Rebars have corroded although embedded in concrete roadbeds when attacked by seawater and chloride ions in deicing salts. It has been found that if the rebars are coated with a suitable resistant coating the corrosion and decay of the rebars in the concrete is prevented.
The diameter of these bars typically range from about 60 mm to 3 cm and when the structural elements in which these rebars are employed reach lengths of over 2 meters, it becomes difficult to handle the rebars. Difficulty is encountered because for the relatively large diameters, the weight of the rebars grows rapidly with length, and whether heavy or not, long lengths of reinforcing stock becomes cumbersome to move. Then, too, it would be highly desirable to provide an automatic system for handling rebars of various sizes and thereby eliminate the labor expense associated with transporting the stock.
Since the cost of the coating of the rebars add substantially to the cost of the bars it would be advantageous to coat several of same simultaneously and thus eliminate the "waiting" time associated with single feeding or feeding one at a time and thereby reduce manufacturing costs.
Several devices are available to move these rebars yet most, if not all, utilize a serial feed. That is, after one rebar has been selected and operatively positioned, it is then moved to the next station and a new rebar is repositioned in the spot that is vacated. This serial feed technique is adequate for relatively small production rates but is ill suited for volume production of rebars particularly as applied to the needs of reinforced concrete construction.
The present invention overcomes several disadvantages of prior art devices and provides a means for handling and feeding several elongated elements concomitantly. In general, the present invention employs a unique serial loader that holds and supports a plurality of stock pieces. The stock is sequentially fed to the loader for storage therein spaced configuration. When the loader if filled the stock is caused to move to the next station. By means of the serial loader of this invention a plurality of stock is simultanteously transferred to an adjacent station. Further, the serial loader includes means to maintain the relative spacing between the stock during its travel from the loader. This permits coating of a plurality of stock pieces with the pieces being fed simultaneously and in spaced configuration.